.
I recently posted about an old, iron, rusty, leaking septic pipe in my basement. It needed to be addressed but I'd been procrastinating becus plumbers are so freakin' expensive.
I called a plumber I've used before, and after I sent him pictures, he quoted me a price of "probably $700 or $800." You know when they give you a range that it never comes in at the low end of the range.
But since I'm making good money and know I can afford it, I was feeling lazy and wasn't going to bother calling other plumbers. I scheduled the job for the next day off I had, later in December on Xmas week.
But then my sister and friend urged me to call around after I told them what the problem was during Thanksgiving dinner, and the quoted price.
I'd forgotten I paid for an Angie's List membership so I went online and found a guy in my area who got a zillion positive reviews. I sent him the same pix and his guys just left here after replacing the pipe for $525, saving me $175 to $275.
When I called the first plumber to cancel the scheduled repair, I made a point to tell him why I was cancelling and that I found another plumber to do the job for a much more reasonable price. Maybe he won't be so greedy next time when he's quoting a job to a customer.
Note to self: Being lazy can cost you!
In other news:
My 1 year promo rate for voice/phone with AT&T Uverse expired Nov. 30. AT&T sold all its UVerse accounts to Frontier, so I had to negotiate new rates with them. I didn't get it any lower, but I pretty much the same rate for another year; then in years 2 and 3 it will go up by $50, she said. Who knows what will happen at that point. I may go with some other carrier.
Saved a lot of money on the plumber
December 5th, 2014 at 05:15 pm
December 5th, 2014 at 06:52 pm 1417805530
Are you enjoying that fact that you're finally being paid for statutory holidays? Have you dropped all your freelance editing? You've not commented on holiday/vacation plans. Do you have a couple of dream vacations? Will you treat yourself to somewhere you've only read about and wished to see or do? It can be very satisfying to spend some winter evenings reviewing seasonal temperatures, events in distance locals, Travel Advisor on-line to see how others report accommodations, ground transportation/tours, food/restaurants and even order e-library travel guides like Lonely Planet, Moon Travel or whatever your preference.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:24 am 1417825490
December 6th, 2014 at 01:33 pm 1417872796
Snafu, I am EXTREMELY grateful to have paid holidays again. I am not doing hardly any freelance writing now. I officially dropped the 2 real estate companies I worked for, specifically because I didn't want to have to report self-employed income and pay taxes on it. I felt the extra work nights and weekends and loss of my free time was not really worth the small amount of net profit I ended with.